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21 mazes that turn earth into picture puzzles

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Conceptis Puzzles

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

If you've been around this website for a while then you know how much we love maze puzzles at Conceptis. Mazes, amongst the oldest puzzle in history, are simple to solve and great fun; they require no special rules or culture-dependent knowledge and are the perfect pastime for children and adults alike. Picture mazes, such as Maze-a-Pix (see free playable sample below) and similar puzzles that are popular in Japan, go a step further by offering recognizable images formed by the process of solving the maze.

Playable picture maze

Above is a free Maze-a-Pix sample - a playable picture maze. If you are new to this website and enjoy playing games online, don't forget to check our selection of free puzzles

But did you know that the concept of picture mazes is also used to make huge spectacular mazes cut out of open fields - usually of corn or wheat? These fantastic formations have become popular in North America and are usually created by farmers seeking extra promotion to their entertainment offerings for tourists. Hence, what began hundreds of years ago as formal garden mazes in Europe, designed to amuse kings and princesses has now turned into a form of business. Check on stockerfarms.com, fritzlermaze.com and farmercharleys.com to name a few or visit cornmazesamerica.com and cornfieldmaze.com to learn more.

Surprisingly high-detailed pictures

The Maze Collection is an assortment of outdoor mazes, identified, bookmarked and shared on Google services by Cyclonic from Connecticut, USA with the help of other members of the Google Earth Community. While many of the mazes bookmarked in this project have already gone or hardly recognized and while most of them compose common abstract maze formations, some of the mazes included in The Maze Collection create surprisingly high-detailed pictures.

The following are 21 images captured with Google Earth above the skies of North America in locations where earth has turned into a spectacular picture forming maze. Those of you who wish to browse the entire collection can download the complete bookmark collection (KMZ format) and run it with Google Earth, free software by Google available here. Know of any other picture mazes captured by Google Earth? Be sure to tell us by posting them on our forums or Facebook page.

[2] A Corn Corn Maze

Located in Nebraska, this maze was cut of a corn field and features… corn! | Image date: November 2004 | Discovered by Cyclonic | Coordinates: 41.094844,-100.62242 | View this maze in Google maps

[3] 1/4 Mile long wolf head

Located along Interstate 40 in New Mexico, this approx. 1/4 mile long maze features a wolf's head in a radio station ad | Image date: November 2003 | Discovered by McSky | Coordinates: 35.020029,-106.07866 | View this maze in Google maps

[13] Escobar's estate corn maze

Escobar's corn maze, located in Portsmouth Rhode Island features a tractor and a country side scene including sun and Escobar's est. 1937 title | Image date: July 2007 | Discovered by OceanState | Coordinates: 41.583275,-71.258964 | View this maze in Google maps

[15] The Wizard of Oz

Featuring the yellow brick road, the Emerald City and rainbow and even the air balloon which is how Dorothy eventually gets home to Kansas (Thanks @Kari Jean-Gilles) The Wizard of Oz was captured above Central Oregon Pumpkin Co. Terrebonne, Oregon, USA | Image date: August 2006 | Discovered by unknown | Coordinates: 44.353942,-121.15117 | View this maze in Google maps